Aetna, North Carolina Baptist Hospital Sign Contract.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced today that it has reached agreement on a two-year contract with North Carolina Baptist Hospital, adding the hospital to its network in the Triad area. The hospital is part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

"Aetna is delighted to announce an agreement with North Carolina Baptist," said Tom Golias, Aetna's head of network operations for North Carolina. "As we continue to attract new members in the Triad area, we're working to give them access to a broad network of participating hospitals and doctors. Adding this well-respected hospital to that network is a significant development."

Under the contract, Aetna members in the Triad area (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point) may receive covered in-patient and out-patient services, at in-network rates, from North Carolina Baptist Hospital.

"We're pleased to be included in the Aetna network of health care providers, and to be able to offer Aetna members convenient, economical access to our full range of services," said Len B. Preslar Jr., North Carolina Baptist's president and CEO. "We invite them to call us or visit our website for more information about our world-class medical care, including our new Comprehensive Cancer Center, innovative cardiac care and state-of the art diagnostic imaging."

Aetna provides health benefits to approximately 200,000 members in North Carolina. Members in the Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem area have access to a contracted network of 15 hospitals, 620 primary care physicians and 1,286 specialists

As one of the nation's leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits, Aetna puts information and helpful resources to work for its approximately 14.4 million medical members, 12.8 million dental members, 9.0 million pharmacy members and 14.0 million group insurance members to help them make better informed decisions about their health care and protect their finances against health-related risks. Aetna provides easy access to cost-effective health care through a nationwide network of more than 672,000 health care professionals, including approximately 400,000 primary care and specialist doctors and 4,084 hospitals. For more information, please visit www.aetna.com. (Figures as of March 31, 2005)